Two Lean Years: 2. Oct 1956 - Sept 1957

In the Michaelmas term membership reached an all-time high, 19, with
the addition of three Freshmen, Peter Downes, Roger Hauland, and Keith
Piper. Meetings were now held on Tuesday evenings, and "the previous
practice of playing haphazard games was abandoned and a ladder inaugurated
which tended to raise the standard of play." It is interesting to see that
the forebears of the present English Tiddlywinks Association Records came
into being at this time: "Members were invited to set up records:- (a) the
number of counters sunk in 100 winks, (b) the number of counters sunk in
60 seconds - both starting with counters a foot from the cup."

The highlight of the term was undoubtedly a match organised
single-handed by Bill Steen against a team of nurses from Addenbrooke's
Hospital. The matches took place on the last Tuesday of the term,
C.U.Tw.C. winning 11 games to 1. For this, their second match, the Club
matted a side composed of Graham Ridge, Robert Turner, David Moreton, Ian
Pascoe, John Scully, and the new trinity of Downes, Hauland and Piper.
Addenbrooke's matted a side of only six, "all charming nurses who provided
quite stiff opposition and weakened the concentration of some of the
Club's playing members. One member became so enthusiastic that he
suggested a return match the following evening at one of the nurse's
flats. The result is not known."

The Lent term was unusual in that it produced two fixtures! On February
11th 1957 the C.U.Tw.C. played Addenbrooke's again, winning 69-30, and on
February 28th the Club defeated Westminster College 106-48. Three matches
in three months was a distinct improvement.

Meanwhile the C.U.Tw.C. persisted in its attempts to encourage
opposition from Oxford. The history of these attempts goes back to the
very foundation of C.U.Tw.C. Even before the Club's first meeting in
January 1955, Bill Steen had urged a friend of his at Oxford, Gordon
Dennis, to form a club there. Dennis gathered together a number of people
prepared to play a friendly game against Cambridge, but not prepared to
stake the reputation of Oxford on an official Varsity match. In February
1955 there were plans for an 'unofficial' match to be held in the summer,
but these plans came to nothing.

When John Scully joined C.U.Tw.C. in the Lent term of 1956 he brought
the news that his girlfriend was at Oxford trying to form a club there.
However, the Minute Book reveals that "the Secretary's girlfriend in
Oxford lost interest in the Long Vacation (i.e. in Tiddlywinks, not him)
but before the Club had time to assimilate this news Peter Downes came
forth with knowledge of a group of enthusiasts in Brasenose who are
intending to form a club." Cambridge hopes were raised in vain. C. I.
Roberts of Brasenose wrote to Scully "We all find tiddlywinks to be an
enjoyable and stimulating game, and one requiring no small measure of
skill... However, none of us feel sufficiently passionate on the subject
to want to form an official club. The general opinion was that even if we
did form a club, it would soon die out in subsequent years." C.U.Tw.C. had
to wait until November 1957 before they first had news of an official club
at Oxford.

C.U.Tw.C.'s third A.G.M. was held on 11th June, 1957. David Arundale
was elected President, Peter Downes Secretary. It was revealed that the
Club's resources amounted to the gratifying sum of £6.18.0. It was at this
meeting that Steen and Howells announced their enterprising plan for a
World Convention of Tiddlywinks, "to thrash out the vital problems of the
rules of the game. Some members treated the idea at first with a
disrespectful frivolity but the general mood was that this scheme could be
highly beneficial to the propogation of Tiddlywinks." The Club now stood,
unknowing, on the verge of the most momentous year the game has known-
with the great match against Prince Philip's Royal Champions the Goons, an
Oxford match, the First World Tiddlywinks Congress, and a West Country
tour. Tiddlywinks began to take deep roots in a host of centres throughout
the country. It was the year the game changed gear. But that is another
story.